Finksburg Corridor Plan - Carroll County Government

Finksburg Corridor Plan
residentially-zoned portions of two properties occupied by a church and an
industrial use. Access to Clubhouse Road is from Old Westminster Pike, which
has direct access onto MD 140 less than 100 feet to the south. Residential lots in
this neighborhood are long deep and narrow, and are generally between ½ to 1
acre in size. Most of the homes were constructed in the mid-20 th century. A large
forested area exists on the residentially-zoned portions of the church and
industrial properties; otherwise, no significant environmental features exist in this
neighborhood. All of the properties within this neighborhood have private well
and septic systems.
The Service and Industry neighborhood occupies the largest land area within the corridor,
comprising almost its entire northern half. It is characterized by service-related
businesses and processing and manufacturing operations. With the exception of the
Congoleum plant that lies along MD 91 and the West Branch Patapsco River, the uses
within this neighborhood are almost entirely screened from view along the major
arterials. Access to properties is off of Dede Road, Cedarhurst Road, or Industrial Park
Drive, except in the case of the CDJ Distillery property that has direct access onto MD 91
and a few properties in which the frontage lies along MD 140 within the Arterial
Business neighborhood. The Service and Industry neighborhood contains a number of
significant natural resources, including the West Branch Patapsco River and several of its
tributaries, floodplain areas, areas of steep slopes, and wetlands. This neighborhood
borders directly on the reservoir and the buffer lands surrounding it. All of the properties
within this neighborhood have private well and wastewastewater disposal systems.
3 Transportation
The 1981 Finksburg Area and Environs Comprehensive Plan undertook a reexamination of the
planned major streets that had been proposed in the 1970 Major Street Plan. Since 1970, the
Agricultural zoning district had been created and there had been a greater recognition of the need
to reduce densities and minimize non-point source pollution in the vicinity of Liberty Reservoir.
As a result, the 1981 plan reduced the number of planned roads, emphasizing instead a system of
local collector streets to move local traffic around the area and decrease congestion in the
Finksburg and Gamber areas, in particular. Within the MD 140 corridor itself, the bulk of the
planned roadways were proposed to facilitate movement to, and around business locations, once
the planned median was constructed and various crossovers were eliminated. The 1981 plan also
predicted the need to widen MD 140 to six lanes after 1999 due to increased traffic.
According to the 2007 State Highway Administration data, the MD 140 corridor handles
approximately 46,700 vehicles per day within the Finksburg area. MD 140, from Westminster to
Finksburg, is one of the most heavily traveled Statestate roadway segments in the countyCounty.
Local countywide paratransit is the only transit system currently being utilized in the area. Rail
and bus transit to downtown Baltimore originate from the Owings Mills and Reisterstown areas,
respectively. A large portion of residents who commute to work in other counties travel by
automobile, resulting in heavy volumes of peak-hour traffic on MD 91 and MD 140. Although a
Approved by Carroll County Planning & Zoning Commission - October 2010Revised Draft – November 2012 ♦ 20
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